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Brisket still ok?

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    Brisket still ok?

    Well ladies and Gents, I may have made a 60 dollar error.

    I had a frozen full Prime Packer Brisket that I wanted to thaw. It was still in the cryovac and I placed it in the sink with water to thaw it last night. I woke up this morning with a dreaded feeling that I forget it. My suspicions were confirmed when I came downstairs and there she was, thawed in the sink. I put my thermopen in and it read 59 in the middle. I put it back in the fridge.

    My instincts are to pitch, however, I wanted to be sure it's ruined before I used it as coyote bait for an impromptu weekend hunt. If I can't stay up all night cooking it, might as well stay up and do some midnight 'yote hunting.

    Any chance it's still ok?

    #2
    I recently inadvertently left a freezer door slightly ajar and the entire contents thawed out. I didn't check with a thermometer, but everything was room temp and I decided to toss the whole mess. It was about $1000 worth of meat, which is coincidentally about the cost of an ER visit. I consider it a financial wash without the agony of food poisoning. Not a scientific approach, for sure, but definitely a risk/benefit analysis.

    Comment


      #3
      I would suggest opening the cryo wrap and smell. Bacteria really needs a full 8 hrs to start growing. If this were mine I would violate a golden rule and wash it with warm water in a sink. Take it out and dry with paper towels. Then I would season and put back in the refrigerator. Remember salt was used almost exclusively as a preservative back in the day. Have a sanitizer right there so you can sanitize the entire sink and all around the counter after washing it. Everywhere you splashed will be contaminated.

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        #4
        Consider this, it’s been in a cryovac package so no new bacteria have been introduced. Yes the existing ones are waking up and multiplying, but if they are only on the surface for now a good rinse will lower their numbers. A liberal application of salt will further retard their growth. Ad some pepper and get it on the smoker. If you cook to an internal temp somewhere near 200F it will be bacteria free. If this were a case where you weren’t sure how long it had been thawed like people who find their freezer has failed I’d say chunk it. I keep briskets in my garage refrigerator for 60 days minimum with no problems to wet age them. If it passed the smell test I’d cook it.

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          #5
          I’m with Oak Smoke & GroceryBoy , the crayovac & knowin the time of the events is on yer side.

          Comment


            #6
            I'd take a whiff and go from there.
            You'll know right away if its turned on you.
            But....when in doubt, throw it out, if the most you spend on a boo boo today is $60 your a lucky man.

            Comment


              #7
              I probably would have thrown it on the smoker and gone on to work if I had done that, since you know it was above 40F at most for a few hours. Heck - so many cooks still tell folks to let the meat come to "room temp" before putting on the smoker.

              It's always safest to toss it, but I've done something similar, and just went ahead and cooked that day, and no one suffered any ill effects.

              Comment


                #8
                Some microbes do not crook off from heat exposure. If it were me and I decided to cook it, which I proly would, I would wipe it down with vinegar before cooking it.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Thank you all!

                  Alright, here's the plan.

                  When I get home I'm going to take it out of the cryo-vac and smell it vigorously. If acceptable I will spray it with vinegar. Back into the fridge for a couple hours, pull it out and trim it and salt it, dry brine for 24 hours. Before I season and smoke it, some ACV then pepper. I feel comfortable with it.

                  Comment


                  • crazytown3
                    crazytown3 commented
                    Editing a comment
                    I think that is a good, reasonable plan.

                  • CaptainMike
                    CaptainMike commented
                    Editing a comment
                    There you go, got some good advice, did your own R/B assessment and have a pretty good plan.

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